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City Limits

I moved from Chester to the west end of Glasgow this month. Felicia and I managed to find a great flat (below) and arrive in time for the 2007 Glasgow Film Festival. This year the GFF has Lars Von Trier's new comedy and a Q&A with Shane Meadows. I'm still unfamiliar with Glasgow, so any recommendations are welcome.

Bookworld

Bought several books: Meditations and Other Metaphysical Writings (Descartes), The Sexual Life of Catherine M (Millet), The Long Goodbye (Raymond Chandler), Fear and Trembling (Soren Kierkegaard), Art by Film Directors (Karl French).

Currently browsing the latter, which features visuals by Cocteau, Fellini, Jean-Jacque Beineix, Kurosawa and others. Derek Jarman's paintings 'Drop Dead' and 'Dead Sexy' recall Pollock, an aesthetic befitting the desperation of his condition (Jarman succumbed to AIDS in 1994). The urgent discharge of paint, spattered in contained frenzy is not without humour. I adore his films from 'The Last Of England' onwards, where narrative is drawn with the looseness of such brushstrokes. On the subject, Jarman's 'Kicking The Pricks' is a recommended read.

Also in this book are Kurosawa's various homages to Van Gogh. Plus there's work by Takeshi Kitano and the neurotic geometry of Peter Greenaway.

Check also: Jan Svankmajer's Bilderlexicon cycle.